TERRIBLE TRAGEDY AT AUCKLAND.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 956, 18 February 1911, Page 2

TERRIBLE TRAGEDY AT AUCKLAND.

TWO CHILDREN BURNT TO DEATH. Auckland, February 16. Pousonby Road, in the city of Auckland was this morning the scene of a terrible tragedy, the result of a fire which broke out about 2 a.m. in a shop in Wakefield Terrace, occupied by Mr Charles Porteous, manager of the Oceanic Fish Company, and his family, and also by his sister-in-law and her husband, Mr and Mrs Herbert Mouutfield.

The inmates ou being awakened all rushed to the front part of the building, and endeavoured to escape by way of the verandah roof. In so doing two little childred lost their lives and six other persons were more or less seriously injured. The casualty list is as follows : Charles Porteous, aged 33, dangerously burned; Edith Porteous, aged 30, severely injured, condition critical; Charles Porteous, aged 8, slightly burned; Hettie Porteous, aged 7, burned to death ; Arthur Porteous, aged 5, burned to death; Philip Wand, aged 12, slightly injured ; Herbert Mountfield, aged 29, severely burned; Ruth Mountfield, aged 26, burned about the hands and feet.

Seen at the public hospital today, Mr Mouutfield told of his experiences.

“We were sitting in the parlour downstairs till alter midnight,” he said, “ and bad only been in bed about; an hour and a half when my wife and I were awakened by the sound of a loud explosion somewhere below. 1 told Mrs Mouutfield to wake Mr and Mrs Porteous, and I rushed into the boys room. To escape by way of the stairs was impossible, and at the back there was a 20ft drop from the windows, so I knew the only way was by the verandah roof at the front. Having got the boys out of bed I jumped through the window, and lifted them out. They all cried aloud at the heat of the iron, and my own feet felt as if the hot iron were scorching the flesh to the bone, but I waited to help my wife, Mr and Mrs Porteous, and their little girl. Mrs Porteous fell when she got on to the roof, and rolled full length ou to the hottest part of the iron. We got her away, but then I saw that the two youngest children, Hettie and Arthur, were unable to stand on the hot verandah roof, and had fallen and were shrieking with pain. Their father and I went towards them, but my feet absolutely stuck to the ironwork, and the flesh came away as I lifted them, so that I almost screamed with the pain. Mr Porteous got even further towards them, and must have had every particle of flesh burnt: from the soles of his feet. Theu he staggered back, and fell exhausted. I went to the assistance of the mother, and tried to prevent her witnessing what was taking place, but mother and father both saw their children burned to death before their own eyes. The one hope theu was that the fire brigade would come before it was too late, and it seemed to me an eternity before they did arrive. Then all that remained for them to do was to lift the dead bodies down into the street.” Auckland, Feb. 17. At the inquest on the victims of the Ponsonby fire this morning, Dr de Clive Lowe said he had never seen anything like the spectacle presented by the bodies of the two children who perished. They were roasted almost to skeletons. He expressed the opinion that they had suffered fearful agony for fifteen or twenty minutes.

The inquest was adjourned till March 2nd.

Porteous, father of the children, stated he was carrying his wile and little girl in his arms over the roof of the verandah when the little boy began screaming. His wife struggled to go to his assistance. In the struggle the little girl fell out on to the verandah. Porteous dragged his wife to a position of safety and then collapsed owing to his own terrible injuries. He saw the children perish. He believed they did not live more than ten seconds after falling.

Mrs Porteous remains in a critical condition. The other sufferers are out of danger.